Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ivecontrolsinvolveconformitywithexpectedsocialrolelessness(FineandAsch1988).
Disabled women are rarely seen as appropriate for traditional female roles of mother-
hoodorreproduction(Hansen2002).Consequently,girlsfeelliketheyhadtonormalize
their bodies. Family members, or those in a position of influence, may assume the role
of societal supervisors who explicitly or more subtly convey their lack of expectation
with respect to future adult lives. These beliefs, based upon the presumption of disabled
women's deficiency in intimate relationships, childbearing, or mothering, may involve
attempts to influence women's decisions and self-expectations through supervisory ap-
proval or disapproval. Parents may protect their daughters from potential male attention
bydressing them in a dowdyorold-fashioned manner,but in the case ofyoungdisabled
women, the same may be the case for other reasons. Where girls or young women re-
quire personal assistance to dress, due to a disability, it appears that clothes are often
chosen on the basis of ease of dressing rather than style or fashion (Campling 1979,
1981). Boadicea, for example, identified her mother as the main person who chose and
purchased her clothes, tending to buy items that reflected her own views on practicabil-
ity rather than Boadicea's own taste or age.
As a young teenager in the early 1960s Elizabeth recalled being conscious that the
prospect of her becoming a nun was far more palatable to her parents, as the subject
was constantly discussed, than were the possibilities of her marrying and having chil-
dren—possibilities that were never mentioned.
[H]e[apriest]alwaysthoughtIwouldmakeagoodnun,becauseIwasdisabled,
that was the reason … she will never get married, she'll never have a family of
her own, she might as well come into the convent and he was always on at my
parents'…. I think my parents did believe that I would go into the convent. (El-
izabeth 51-56 years)
Similarly, in the mid-1960s, Boadicea became acutely aware of her family's lack
of expectations for her adult life when she overheard a group of her female relatives
discussing her future prospects: “[they were] saying that of course she will never get
a husband, nobody is going to want to marry a blind girl” (Boadicea 46-51 years).
These remarks were evidently made on the assumption that Boadicea's visual impair-
ment rendered her undesirable to potential partners and unsuitable as a sexual partner or
wife.
Beth also mentioned subtle expectations for her adult life as conveyed by her parents
andteachers.Beth'sinterpretationofthesemessageswasthatheradultlifewouldnotin-
clude relationships or social roles of wife or mother: “I wouldn't get married, I wouldn't
have relationships, and I certainly would never be a mother, that's the sort of message
thatyougot—andsex,butdisabledpeopledon'thavesex[laughs]”(Beth36-41years).
